We welcome submissions of previously unpublished poetry, fiction, non-fiction, essays and interviews by D/deaf and disabled creatives from anywhere in the world.
Send us brave, provocative, humorous and influential pieces that disrupt normative definitions of us, and resist mainstream expectations and approval. Send us work that enriches and extends our cultural landscapes, perspectives that go to the core of what it means to be human.
We are guided by a social model of disability that states we are disabled by society, that the barriers we face are created by external socio-cultural attitudes, structures and physical environment. We believe the problem is not an individual’s inability to walk but the lack of lifts, step-free access and money for good assistive devices. This way of thinking opposes the medical model which situates our impairment, health condition or difference as the barrier.
We are seeking critically engaged and nuanced work that speaks to D/deaf and disabled communities, as well as to wider audiences. We want work that explores the compounding structural nature of disablism as it intersects with the social injustice experienced by First Nations People, queer and working-class communities, people of colour, migrants, asylum-seekers and women. We love art that engages with the radical politics of liberation; art that contributes to dismantling the structures that oppress us.
While it is very difficult to be accessible to all people at all times, we take access very seriously. Artists may submit their work as text, signed video, and audio. If work is accepted for publication, we encourage artists to assist us with access by providing audio readings of their text, text versions of their audio or signed videos, etc.
We seek to showcase a wide spectrum of disabled writers and artists — including those who live with chronic pain, fatigue, or illness. The circumstances that lead to disability are dynamic and fluid at the edges — encompassing different bodyminds, different impairments, and different health conditions. We want no body left behind. Nothing about us without us.
Submit 1 longer piece (fiction/nonfiction/essay/interview) or a max of 3 poems via Submittable.
For examples of work we publish in /dɪsˈrʌpt/, visit our Vault.